“Our study demonstrates the high sensitivity of [gallium Ga-68 dotatate] in the localization of [ectopic Cushing’s syndrome], for both occult primary tumors and metastatic lesions,” the researchers wrote. “Importantly, the use of [gallium Ga-68 dotatate] impacted clinical management in 64% of patients with [ectopic Cushing’s syndrome] overall.” The researche […]

The 11th annual Pituitary Day will take place on October 19, 2019 Patients living with pituitary disorders can hear lectures from our pituitary specialists, see movies of pituitary surgeries and hear from other patients about their experience living with pituitary disease and undergoing surgery.

Cynthia is from Ruckersville, VA. She is testing for Cushing's due to many symptoms. tested for CD because after exhaustive research on AVN (Avascular Necrosis) related to other diseases. I have four known areas of AVN & after seeing the symptoms of CD, I realized may have this. I also have numerous other diseases Lupus, Sojgrens, Hypothyroid, High […]

Today is the Thirteenth Anniversary of my kidney cancer surgery. These thirteen years have been bonus years for me. For my cancer stage, the 5-year survival rate was 81% and I’ve made it more than twice that long – so far.

Kathy was diagnosed with a pituitary tumor in 1991. At the time the only symptom she was aware of was a severe headache. She had a transsphenoidal resection followed by radiation therapy for 23 days. They said they could not remove all of the tumor.

Sadly, we lost another Cushing’s patient on Friday, May 9, 2014. Melinda was a member of the Cushing’s Help message boards since Jun 24, 2007. She was only 25 and left behind a young son and many loving family members.

He died of a presumed heart attack. September 19, 2015 he said "'I was diagnosed hypertensive way back when I was 20. The condition remained for years, and became more acute with my cushings pit tumor. I still have high blood pressure, partially teated with three meds. I'll have to consult my doc and see if this may also be an issue."

'My name is Caroline and I dont post often but have met a few of you guys and read the board regularly, it has definitely been a godsend to cushies everywhere. The reason I am writing tonight is I have just received devastating information about a dear friend of mine, and a woman some of you may have met during testing. Her name is Kathryn Miller and sh […]

Cushing’s syndrome (CS) is a condition characterized by excess cortisol in the blood, which can lead to a variety of issues, including obesity, high blood pressure, abnormal lipid levels, osteoporosis, depression, and cognitive impairments.

In some cases, patients have high cortisol levels, but lack the typical physical features of Cushing’s syndrome. These patients are considered to have subclinical Cushing’s syndrome (SCS), and are at higher risk for cardiovascular disease.

Being able to properly diagnose CS and SCS is of utmost importance for proper intervention and treatment of these patients.

Current methods of diagnosis rely on dexamethasone suppressing tests or late-night salivary and blood cortisol tests, as well as measurements of cortisol in urine. However, because cortisol is a stress-hormone, it can be elevated in cases of mental or physical stress, leading to false positive results on these tests.

Researchers in this study examined if another hormone, called the thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), could be used to diagnose Cushing’s syndrome with better accuracy.

TSH is a hormone thatstimulates the thyroid gland and whose secretion is affected by the body’s circadian rhythm. Its highest levels in the blood are usually seen in the late evening or early morning. However, patients with CS or SCS lack this nocturnal increase in TSH levels, which could be useful as a new diagnostic approach.

The study recruited 142 patients with suspected CS and SCS, and 21 patients with depression, being treated at the Osaka University Hospital in Japan.

Patients received the ordinal screening tests for Cushing’s syndrome, along with measurements of their midnight-to-morning TSH levels.

After taking the tests, only 20 patients were diagnosed as having Cushing’s, including 12 with over (normal) Cushing’s syndrome and 10 with subclinical Cushing’s syndrome.

Patients with Cushing’s had significantly lower midnight TSH levels than non-Cushing’s patients. No differences were seen in morning levels between the groups. Of note, TSH ratio was maintained in patients with depression, suggesting TSH levels could be used to diagnose Cushing’s in patients with depression.

Researchers observed that serum TSH ratio had powerful diagnostic accuracy. Among patients identified as having Cushing’s, 90% actually had the disease. And among patients excluded for Cushing’s, 95% did not have the condition. These sensitivity and specificity rates were better than with current diagnostic approaches.

However, when considering this test, patients with a severe TSH deficiency must be taken into account.

Overall, these results suggest that the midnight-to-morning serum TSH ratio is a potential new way to diagnose both CS and SCS with a higher specificity than the current diagnostic methods

“The strength of our current survey is its prospective design and the evaluation of not only overt CS but also SCS. The limitation is the relatively small number of CS group patients, especially overt CD,” the researchers wrote.

“New prospective studies will be needed with a larger number of patients in order to further clarify the optimal TSH ratio in the diagnosis of CS,” the study concluded.